News - AllGov860506http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/blueprint-for-impeachmentthe-mueller-report?news=860506Top StoriesBlueprint for Impeachment—The Mueller Report<p>
I took the liberty of reading the entire Mueller Report, including the appendices, before reading or listening to any commentary by others.</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
<p>
There are two parts to the Report, one dealing with Russian interference with the 2016 U.S. election and the other dealing with possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump and others.</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<strong>Impeachable Offenses</strong></p>
<p>
Let me start with the question of obstruction of justice because it is the most startling. Without using the word &ldquo;impeachment,&rdquo; Mueller and his team bluntly present the evidence that Trump has committed multiple impeachable offenses.</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Mueller considers eleven possible areas of obstruction. To each of these, he applies the three criteria that must be met to qualify legally as obstruction. These are:</p>
<p>
1. an obstructive act</p>
<p>
2. a nexus between the obstructive act and an official proceeding</p>
<p>
3. a corrupt intent.</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In some cases, Mueller writes that the acts do not rise to the level of legal obstruction of justice. But the majority do. These relate to:</p>
<ul>
<li>
Trump&rsquo;s conduct concerning the investigation of Michael Flynn</li>
<li>
Trump&rsquo;s reaction to public confirmation of the FBI&rsquo;s Russia investigation</li>
<li>
Events leading up to and surrounding the termination of FBI director James Comey</li>
<li>
Trump&rsquo;s efforts to remove Special Counsel Robert Mueller</li>
<li>
Trump&rsquo;s efforts to curtail the special counsel&rsquo;s investigation</li>
<li>
Trump&rsquo;s efforts to have Attorney General Jeff Sessions take over the investigation</li>
<li>
Trump ordering White House Counsel Don McGahn to deny that Trump tried to fire Mueller</li>
<li>
Trump&rsquo;s conduct towards Paul Manafort</li>
<li>
Trump&rsquo;s conduct involving Michael Cohen</li>
</ul>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Citing extensive examples of case law, including Supreme Court decisions, Mueller obliterates the arguments presented by Trump&rsquo;s attorneys in their attempts to say that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted for obstruction of justice.</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Mueller concludes, &ldquo;&hellip;if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The Report quotes an 1882 ruling, <em>United States v. Lee</em>: &ldquo;[n]o [person] in this country is so high that he is above the law.&rdquo; This opinion was written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Freeman Miller, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Abraham Lincoln. For the record, here is Miller&rsquo;s actual quote: &ldquo;No man in this country is so high that he is above the law. No officer of the law may set that law at defiance with impunity. All the officers of the government, from the highest to the lowest, are creatures of the law, and are bound to obey it. It is the only supreme power in our system of government, and every man who by accepting office participates in its functions is only the more strongly bound to submit to that supremacy, and to observe the limitations which it imposes upon the exercise of the authority which it gives.&rdquo;</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In a world in which justice and democracy took precedence over party politics, Donald Trump would be impeached, convicted and booted out of the White House. Alas, we do not appear to live in such a world. Even if the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives saw fit to impeach Trump, the Republican-controlled Senate would probably acquit him. Back on July 27, 1974, six of 17 Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee joined with the Democrats to move forward with articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon for obstruction of justice. Twelve days later, as Republican support for Nixon eroded, Nixon announced his resignation rather than face an impeachment trial. But the majority of Republican senators of 2019 do not seem to be able to meet the moral standards of the Republicans of 1974.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<strong>The Russian Connection</strong></p>
<p>
For quite some time, Russian agents had been infiltrating U.S. political circles on social media. The goal was to cause chaos and dissension among Americans. Whether the topic was immigration or Black Lives Matter or even the anti-vaccination movement, the Russians would rile up both sides of an issue, making people angrier and angrier. In a way, this was just the digital age equivalent of standard spycraft and disruption of an enemy, something the United States might do as well. But, as the 2016 election drew closer, the Russian government, presumably on orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin, decided that Donald Trump was the person they wanted to become president of the United States, and they went to great lengths to get what they wanted.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Russian interference in the U.S. electoral process took two forms: hacking into Democratic databases, which was carried out by Putin&rsquo;s military, and an elaborate scheme to support Trump by whipping up anti-Hillary Clinton emotions online and even embedding Russian spies inside the United States to organize pro-Trump rallies. These interventions were funded by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a businessman friend of Vladimir Putin (thus technically isolating the activities from a connection with the Russian government). It is clear that the Russians wanted to make contact with the Trump Campaign, and that the Trump Campaign wanted to make contact with anyone who could provide &ldquo;dirt&rdquo; about Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately, this section of the Mueller Report is heavily redacted.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
A lot of attention is given to a meeting at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, during which Trump&rsquo;s son, Donald Trump Jr., Trump&rsquo;s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and campaign manager Paul Manafort thought they were going to receive some juicy anti-Clinton dirt from Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya. They got nothing, and Donald Jr. expressed disgust at this waste of time. Nonetheless, this meeting was a clear violation of federal campaign law, which prohibits seeking or receiving campaign aid from non-Americans.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
So why did Mueller not charge Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort? The answer would be funny if it was not such a pathetic commentary on the U.S. electoral system. A successful prosecution of violation of campaign finance laws must prove that the accused parties knew that they were breaking the law. Although President Trump would later go to great lengths to cover up details of this meeting, Mueller determined that at the time of meeting, Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort did not know it was illegal to receive campaign aid from foreigners. Apparently, a lifetime of believing people who are born rich are not subject to the same laws as everyone else saved Trump Jr. and Kushner from prosecution.</p>
<p align="right">
-David Wallechinsky</p>
2019-04-22T14:19:11-07:00860499http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/rich-persons-resistance-in-the-trump-administration?news=860499Top StoriesRich Person’s Resistance in the Trump Administration<p>
On September 5, 2018, <em>The New York Times </em>published an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html">editorial</a> by an anonymous Trump administration official that accuses President Donald Trump of being amoral, erratic, unstable, petty, ineffective and anti-democratic. The writer claims that, fortunately, there are many people in the White House and elsewhere in the federal government who do what they can to save the country by running the U.S. government in a proper manner.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Most of the media coverage of this editorial has focused either on how scary it is to have a president who is clearly unfit for the job or on the hunt by Trump and his allies to figure out who wrote the piece. But there is another aspect of the editorial that is disturbing. These inside &ldquo;resistors&rdquo; attempt to portray themselves as patriots who are trying to save America by being &ldquo;adults in the room.&rdquo; But the anonymous official and other insiders have an agenda that is not as patriotic as they make it out to be. Here is the key line in the article that makes clear their real agenda: &ldquo;There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Let&rsquo;s be clear: Trump&rsquo;s deregulation actions are &ldquo;effective&rdquo; only if you are a big business owner or, preferably, the CEO or member of the board of directors of a large corporation or financial institution. Historic tax reform? The overwhelming majority of those savings went to the rich and super-rich. A more robust military? Good news if you&rsquo;re a weapons maker or another kind of military contractor. But out in the field and around the world, I have yet to notice any significant positive change. Indeed, the military under Trump is barely distinguishable from the military under Barack Obama.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The anonymous Trump administration official appears to support Donald Trump&rsquo;s general agenda of helping the richest Americans and ignoring everyone else. What worries the writer is not that Trump is failing &ldquo;to put country first,&rdquo; but that he is so emotionally disturbed that he will somehow screw up this corporatist agenda.</p>
<p align="right">
-David Wallechinsky</p>
2018-09-06T12:49:34-07:00860495http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/mongolias-ambassador-to-the-united-states-who-is-yondon-otgonbayar-180621?news=860495Top StoriesMongolia’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Yondon Otgonbayar?<p>
Yondon Otgonbayar, a long-time member of his country&rsquo;s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, presented his credentials to President Donald Trump as Mongolia&rsquo;s ambassador to the United States on March 28, 2018. He had nominated to the position on May 25, 2017.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Otgonbayar was born August 3, 1965. He attended School #52 in Ulaanbaator, Mongolia&rsquo;s capital, before serving a hitch in the army as a member of the 282nd Infantry Regiment. In 1983, he left for the Moscow Institute of Foreign Relations, finishing in 1989. He returned to that school later, in 2005, and added a Ph.D. He also earned a post-graduate diploma at the School of Marketing and Management in New Delhi, India, in 1995.</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Otgonbayar joined Mongolia&rsquo;s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1989 as first secretary in the Department of Asia. In 1991, he was sent to India as second secretary in the embassy in New Delhi. Otgonbayar was then put in the Department of International Organizations and served in 1996-1997 in Mongolia&rsquo;s mission to the United Nations.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 1997, Otgonbayar left government to be the CEO and director of Bayangol Hotel. He returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2000 as first secretary in the Department of Policy Planning and the following year was made foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Otgonbayar left the Foreign Ministry in 2004 to become secretary general of the Mongolian People&rsquo;s Revolutionary Party (MPRP), now the Mongolian People&rsquo;s Party. At the time, Mongolia was doing a lot of trading with China after years of being a client state of the Soviet Union. Otgonbayar worked to encourage trade with the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union as well. In 2006, Otgonbayar added leadership of the Ulaanbaator branch of the MPRP to his party duties.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Otgonbayar was made minister of education, culture and science in 2008. He was elected to parliament in 2012 from Bulgan, a province along the border with Russia. In 2016, Otgonbayar was named vice minister of education, culture, science and sports, a post he held until going to Washington.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Otgonbayar is married and has two children. He speaks English, Russian and Hindi.</p>
<p align="right">
-Steve Straehley</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More</em></p>
<p>
<a href="http://mongolianembassy.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/BIO-H.E.-Mr.-Otgonbayar-Yondon-Ambassador-of-Mongolia.pdf">Curriculum Vitae</a> (pdf)&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/09/business/mongolia-s-shifting-ties-more-china-less-russia.html">Mongolia&rsquo;s Shifting Ties: More China, Less Russia</a> (by James Brooke, New York Times)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/list-foreign-ambassadors-participated-credentialing-ceremony-4/">Official Announcement</a></p>
2018-06-21T11:55:06-07:00860494http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/ambassador-of-guinea-to-the-united-states-who-is-kerfalla-yansan%C3%A9-180620?news=860494Top StoriesAmbassador of Guinea to the United States: Who Is Kerfalla Yansané?<p>
Kerfalla Yansan&eacute; became the 21st ambassador of Guinea to the United States at the beginning of 2018. Appointed on November 24, 2017, he presented his credentials to President Donald Trump on January 24, 2018. Guinea was the first country in Francophone sub-Saharan Africa to establish diplomatic relations with the U.S., following its independence from France in October 1958. He succeeds <a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/appointments-and-resignations/guineas-ambassador-to-the-united-states-who-is-mamady-conde-141213?news=855088">Mamady Cond&eacute;</a>, who served in Washington from 2015 to 2018.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Born in 1942 in Conakry what was then French Guinea, Kerfalla Yansan&eacute; earned a State Doctorate (PhD) from University of Paris-Sorbonne, Faculty of Economics and Law, and a Diploma of Finance from the Institute of Political Sciences of Paris.</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
<p>
A lawyer by training, Yansan&eacute; started his career not in his native Guinea, but in neighboring Senegal, as a law professor at University of Dakar (since 1987, Cheikh Anta Diop University), which was the largest and most prestigious university in French West Africa.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Despite his legal background, most of Yansan&eacute;&rsquo;s government experience has been with economics and finance. He served as governor of the Central Bank of Guinea from 1986 to 1996.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Yansan&eacute; was a development consultant with a number of institutions, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, the NEPAD Secretariat, the African Development Bank, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Yansan&eacute; served as minister of economy and finance from February 2010 to December 2013. Serving President S&eacute;kouba Konate&rsquo;s Transition Government at first, he retained the post after elections in 2010 resulted in a win for Alpha Cond&eacute;. As minister, Yansan&eacute; carried out negotiations with the International Monetary Fund regarding Guinea&rsquo;s debt that led to economic reforms allowing the country to carry out a program of debt relief. Those efforts led <em>African Banker</em> magazine to name him as African finance minister of the year in May 2012.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Nevertheless, that same year, Yansane was accused of signing a secret $25 million loan agreement with Palladino Capital, owned by Walter Hennig of South Africa, allowing Palladino to take ownership of a 30 percent share of the country&#39;s official mine holdings in the event of default. Yansane disputed the facts, but announced on June 21, 2012, the repayment of the loan in full.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
After a cabinet reshuffle in January 2014, Yansan&eacute; became minister of mines and geology, where he oversaw his specialty: contracts for oil exploration. One of the companies he dealt with Hyperdynamics of Houston, gained the right to explore for offshore oil off the coast of Guinea. They found nothing and filed for bankruptcy in December 2017. Yansan&eacute; emphasized bringing in foreign investors, who have long lusted after Guinea&rsquo;s reserves of bauxite, iron ore, gold and other minerals.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In January 2016, Yansan&eacute; was named minister of state to the presidency of the republic, the title he held before becoming ambassador.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Yansan&eacute; has been active in several regional and international organizations, including the vice-chairman of the African Economic Research Consortium (1992-2007); member of the Policy Advisory Group of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor through the extension of micro finance services (CIGAP, World Bank, 1998-2001); executive board member of the African Capacity Building Foundation (2002-2009); and member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (2004-2006).</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Kerfalla Yansan&eacute; is married and has two children.</p>
<p align="right">
-Matt Bewig</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.guineaembassyusa.com/index.php?route=list&amp;menu_type_name=page&amp;menu_id=25">Guinea Embassy Profile</a></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.africadownunderconference.com/he-kerfalla-yansane/">Africa Downunder Profile</a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.africaguinee.com/articles/2017/11/26/diplomatie-qui-est-kerfalla-yansane-le-nouvel-ambassadeur-de-la-guinee-aux-etats">Diplomatie: qui est Kerfalla Yansan&eacute;, le nouvel ambassadeur de la Guin&eacute;e aux Etats-Unis?</a> (Africaguinee.com)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.conakryinfos.com/lancien-ministre-kerfalla-yansane-nomme-ministre-conseiller-a-la-presidence-de-la-republique/">L&rsquo;ancien ministre Kerfalla Yansan&eacute; nomm&eacute; ministre conseiller &agrave; la pr&eacute;sidence de la R&eacute;publique</a> (by Mohamed Sylla, Conakryinfos.com)</p>
2018-06-20T11:55:06-07:00860493http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/ambassador-from-lebanon-to-the-us-who-is-gabriel-issa-180619?news=860493Top StoriesAmbassador from Lebanon to the U.S.: Who Is Gabriel Issa?<p>
The recently installed ambassador from Lebanon is actually a Lebanese-American who lived in the U.S. more than 40 years. Shortly before the October 2016 presidential election in Lebanon, Gabriel Issa of Detroit returned to Lebanon on a permanent basis and became a close advisor to Lebanon&rsquo;s soon-to-be president, Michel Aoun. Aoun appointed Issa ambassador in July 2017 and Issa presented his credentials to President Donald Trump on January 24, 2018. As ambassador to the U.S., Issa succeeds <a href="http://www.allgov.com/officials/chedid-antoine?officialid=29010">Antoine Chedid</a>, who served from July 2007 to January 2016.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Born March 15, 1957, in Lebanon, Gabriel Naoum Issa immigrated to the U.S. in 1975 at age 18. Settling down in the Detroit area, which has had a large Lebanese-American community since the 1870s, Issa earned a BS in Civil Engineering at the Detroit Institute of Technology in 1980.</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Even before graduation, Issa had already founded two businesses, AAA Language Services and Iterotext Translation Services, in March 1978. Both are located in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield. Among Interotext&rsquo;s achievements has been translating General Motors car manuals into languages other than English.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Issa spent his career building those two businesses, along with several others, including AAA Properties, founded in August 1995; G&amp;T Enterprises (February 1996); AAA International Group (May 1997); PreBuy (January 1999); and Joules International (January 2009).&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Although he became a naturalized US citizen, Issa has been deeply involved in Lebanese politics for years. Lebanon&rsquo;s politics revolve around the religious divisions in the country, whose population is 54% Muslim, 40.5% Christian, and 5.6% Druze, according to the CIA World Factbook. A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maronite_Church">Maronite Christian</a>, Issa has long supported the &ldquo;Free Patriotic Movement,&rdquo; (FPM) which is one of two large Christian parties. Last October, the FPM elected its first president of Lebanon, Michel Aoun, who forged an alliance between the FPM and the Shi&rsquo;ia party Hezbollah. Issa is a long-time associate of Aoun, who, while in exile, sent Issa to Syria in 2005 to discuss Syria withdrawing troops from Lebanon, a goal Issa had been pursuing since 1990, and which was achieved, after a 29-year occupation, in 2005.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Issa has been active in the Lebanese-American community. He has served as president of the Lebanese American Council of Detroit, as president of the Lebanese American Political Action Committee in Detroit; and as <a href="https://www.lacd.us/">co-founder</a> (in 1990) and vice-president of the <a href="https://www.lacd.us/">Lebanese American Council for Democracy</a> in Washington, DC.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Issa speaks fluent Arabic and French. He is married to Bernadette (Gaberiel) Issa, with whom he has four children. Issa renounced his US citizenship in order to serve the government of Lebanon.</p>
<p align="right">
-Matt Bewig</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-issa-39487738/">LinkedIn Profile</a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.arabamericannews.com/2017/07/20/lebanon-names-former-bloomfield-hills-resident-gabriel-issa-as-its-ambassador-to-washington/">Lebanon Names Former Bloomfield Hills Resident Gabriel Issa as its Ambassador to Washington</a> (Arab American News)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.lacd.us/Blog/post/2017/03/03/bilateral-relations-between-lebanon-and-the-u-s-are-fine-gabriel-issa-explains">Bilateral Relations between Lebanon and the U.S Are Fine: Gabriel Issa Explains</a> (by Marlene Sabeh, Lebanese American Council for Democracy)</p>
2018-06-19T11:55:06-07:00860496http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/trump-administration-secretly-closed-program-helping-refugee-children-180618?news=860496Top StoriesTrump Administration Secretly Closed Program Helping Refugee Children<p>
By Helen Christophi, Courthouse News Service</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) &ndash; A group of Central American immigrants has filed a <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CAM-complaint.pdf">class action lawsuit</a> (pdf) against the Trump administration over the secret termination of a refugee program that gave children fleeing violence in the region a path to reunification with their parents in the United States.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The plaintiffs, Central American immigrants legally residing in the United States and their minor children living in Central America, say racism against Latinos motivated the administration&rsquo;s 2017 decision to terminate the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/CAM">Central American Minors</a> (CAM) program.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The June 13 complaint claims the administration shut down the program just days after Trump entered office in January 2017, but didn&rsquo;t announce the termination until August of that year.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The plaintiffs say the new administration immediately stopped interviewing program beneficiaries and froze their applications; stopped issuing decisions to applicants who were likely candidates for parole; and stopped scheduling the medical exams required for parolees to travel to the United States &ndash; all in secret.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Nonetheless, the administration continued to accept money from applicants, including $100 or more for medical exams and $1,400 for each child&rsquo;s plane ticket to the United States, the class representatives say.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The money hasn&rsquo;t been returned, despite the revocation of the plaintiffs&rsquo; conditional approval to travel to the United States, according to Daniel Asimow, who represents the class.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&ldquo;These are thousands of families that expected their children would be reunified with them, kids in grave danger in the Northern Triangle countries,&rdquo; Asimow said by phone. &ldquo;To be told your child is approved for legal travel, that authorization is forthcoming, and to have the government go silent is devastating for these families.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The only recourse for the 3,000 young people whose conditional approval was revoked is to request review of the denial.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The plaintiffs&rsquo; reviews have yet to be granted, however, raising fears that children who had been accepted as parolees will be permanently blocked from entering the United States.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Citing President Donald Trump&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/trump-anti-immigrant-rhetoric-emboldens-hate-mongers-150917?news=857437">racist statements</a> made during the 2016 presidential campaign, the plaintiffs claim the &ldquo;unprecedented, unexplained, and unsupported secret shutdown&rdquo; of the parole portion of the program violates the Constitution&rsquo;s due process and equal protection clauses.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&ldquo;This administration&rsquo;s highly erratic and unexplained termination of the CAM Parole program,&rdquo; the 46-page complaint states, &ldquo;can only be understood as another one of this administration&rsquo;s cruel and xenophobic policies against people it has publicly labeled &lsquo;animals.&#39;&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The <a href="http://www.allgov.com/departments/department-of-justice?detailsDepartmentID=573">Department of Justice</a> did not return a request seeking comment.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Established under the Obama administration in 2014, the Central American Minors program allowed legal immigrants from <a href="http://www.allgov.com/nations?nationID=3573">El Salvador</a>, <a href="http://www.allgov.com/nations?nationID=3508">Guatemala</a> and <a href="http://www.allgov.com/nations?nationID=3513">Honduras</a> &ndash; sometimes called the Northern Triangle countries &ndash; to bring their children fleeing violence to the United States as refugees or parolees.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The program was a response to the explosion in the number of unaccompanied children from the Northern Triangle arriving at the United States&rsquo; southern border.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Border Patrol apprehended about 50,000 children at the border the year the program took effect, up from 8,000 two years earlier, according to the complaint. Before then, Border Patrol had stopped just 4,000 unaccompanied children from these countries each year.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The plaintiffs, identified in the complaint only by their initials, include a teenage girl who was forced to drop out of high school just before graduation because she feared being raped or killed by an MS-13 gang member trying to forcibly &ldquo;date&rdquo; her; a teenage boy who has trouble walking and bathing after being beaten by MS-13 members; and a teenage boy MS-13 gang members are threatening with murder after shooting his uncle outside the boy&rsquo;s home.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Asimow is optimistic about obtaining a court order reinstating the parole portion of the program, noting several factors working in the class&rsquo; favor: their reliance on the administration&rsquo;s representations that they could travel to the United States; the money they spent on the application process; and the program&rsquo;s secret termination.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&ldquo;We have a strong case,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala have some of the highest child homicide rates in the world, according to the complaint.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Gangs like MS-13 and Barrio 18 have created &ldquo;semi-autonomous mini-states&rdquo; there, facilitating gruesome acts of violence, much of it aimed at children.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Attacks on buses, abductions, gang rapes, and shootings occur each day in many neighborhoods, according to the plaintiffs. Gangs regularly try to recruit young children as members and sex slaves, and kill them when their efforts are rebuffed.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
One Honduran city has reported regular killings of children under 10 years old and as young as two.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Asimow is with Arnold &amp; Porter Kaye Scholer in San Francisco. The <a href="https://refugeerights.org/">International Refugee Assistance Project</a> in New York also represents the plaintiffs.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CAM-complaint.pdf">Class Action Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief: CAM Program Termination</a> (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California) (pdf)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/us-and-the-world/lawsuit-against-us-health-agency-alleges-religious-charities-it-funds-deny-health-options-to-raped-refugee-girls-160629?news=859072">Lawsuit against U.S. Health Agency Alleges Religious Charities it Funds Deny Health Options to Raped Refugee Girls</a> (by Nicholas Iovino, Courthouse News Service)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/lawsuit-accuses-immigration-officials-of-denying-applications-of-abused-children-160313?news=858465">Lawsuit Accuses Immigration Officials of Denying Applications of Abused Children</a> (by Ryan Kocian, Courthouse News Service)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/us-health-agency-accused-of-releasing-lone-migrant-children-to-traffickers-160129?news=858188">U.S. Health Agency Accused of Releasing Lone Migrant Children to Traffickers</a> (by Tim Ryan, Courthouse News Service)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/would-jesus-have-turned-away-syrian-refugees-151120?news=857894">Would Jesus Have Turned Away Syrian Refugees?</a> (by Noel Brinkerhoff and Steve Straehley, AllGov)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/trump-anti-immigrant-rhetoric-emboldens-hate-mongers-150917?news=857437">Trump Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Emboldens Hate Mongers</a> (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.allgov.com/usa/ca/news/california-and-the-nation/donald-trump-has-a-plan-for-deporting-millions-of-california-illegal-immigrants-150818?news=857225">Donald Trump Has a Plan for Deporting Millions of California Illegal Immigrants</a> (by Ken Broder, AllGov California)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/where-is-the-money-going/theres-money-to-be-made-on-flood-of-child-immigrants-140804?news=853877">There&rsquo;s Money to be Made on Flood of Child Immigrants</a> (by Steve Straehley, AllGov)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/majority-of-americans-support-treatment-of-migrant-children-as-refugees-not-illegal-immigrants-140731?news=853846">Majority of Americans Support Treatment of Migrant Children as Refugees, Not Illegal Immigrants</a> (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/the-anti-trafficking-law-that-backfired-into-the-current-flood-of-child-immigrants-140710?news=853641">The Anti-Trafficking Law that Backfired into the Current Flood of Child Immigrants</a> (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/us-and-the-world/refugees-worldwide-reach-level-not-seen-in-generationsand-half-are-children?news=853475">Refugees Worldwide Reach Level not Seen in Generations&hellip;and Half are Children</a> (by Steve Straehley, AllGov)</p>
2018-06-18T11:55:06-07:00860492http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/c%C3%B4te-divoire-ambassador-to-the-united-states-who-is-ha%C3%AFdara-mamadou-180617?news=860492Top StoriesCôte d’Ivoire Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Haïdara Mamadou?<p>
Ha&iuml;dara Mamadou was appointed to be ambassador to the United States from C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire on February 28, 2018, and he presented his credentials to President Donald Trump on March 28, 2018. He replaced <a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/appointments-and-resignations/ambassador-from-cote-divoire-who-is-daouda-diabate?news=843839">Daouda Diabat&eacute;</a>.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
This is not Ha&iuml;dara&rsquo;s first assignment in Washington. He previously served as commercial counselor and director of C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire&rsquo;s economic office at the embassy there.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Ha&iuml;dara is president of the think tank Cercle Lib&eacute;ral de C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire. He also has served as chairman of the board of SONITRA (Soci&eacute;t&eacute; nationale&nbsp; ivoirienne&nbsp; de travaux), a public-private partnership that undertakes public works projects, such as roads, bridges and other infrastructure, in C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Ha&iuml;idara is married to A&iuml;ssata Keita Haidara.</p>
<p align="right">
-Steve Straehley</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://news.abidjan.net/h/631839.html">Haidara Mamadou New Ambassador of C&ocirc;te d&#39;Ivoire to the United States</a> (Abidjan.net)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/list-foreign-ambassadors-participated-credentialing-ceremony-4/">White House Announcement</a></p>
2018-06-17T13:25:06-07:00860491http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/ambassador-of-madagascar-to-the-united-states-who-is-eric-andriamihaja-robson-180615?news=860491Top StoriesAmbassador of Madagascar to the United States: Who Is Eric Andriamihaja Robson?<p>
The new ambassador to the United States from the island nation of Madagascar is no stranger to the U.S. Eric Andriamihaja Robson was appointed on February 27, 2018, arrived in Washington, DC, by the middle of the month, and presented his credentials to President Donald Trump on March 28, 2018, in an Oval Office ceremony. According to a report issued by Andriamihaja Robson, in 2016, Chinese companies opened 154 businesses in Madagascar and U.S. companies just 12.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
A native of Madagascar&rsquo;s largest city and capital, Antananarivo, Robson is a graduate of the College of St. Michael Amparibe, an elite secondary school located in the Amparibe quarter of Antananarivo.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Robson journeyed to the U.S. for his postsecondary education. He earned a B.S. in Business Administration and Management in 1999, and an MBA with an emphasis on International Marketing in 2000, both at the University of South Carolina.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Robson joined the Economic Development Board of Madagascar (EDBM) in March 2007 as the representative of President Marc Ravalomanana. He later became the organization&rsquo;s director of facilitation and business. He was promoted to deputy director general in 2009, and was named director general and CEO in May 2015. EDBM promotes investment in Madagascar.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Robson has been affiliated with the African Infrastructure Development Partnership, a Swiss-based organization offering alternative approaches to African development, since 2015.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Robson teaches Business Administration at the Ecole Sup&eacute;rieure Sacr&eacute; Coeur Antanimena (ESCA), a private college in Antananarivo, the University of Antananarivo, and at other schools in the area. He speaks fluent English, French, and Malagasy.</p>
<p align="right">
-Matt Bewig</p>
<p align="right">
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-andriamihaja-robson-200176151/">LinkedIn Profile</a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://afidep.com/en/37-adic/speakers-pages/300-eric-andriamihaja-robson">AFIDEP Profile</a> (African Infrastructure Development Partnership)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.mae-gov.mg/index.php?fr/article310/de-la-promotion-des-investissements-a-la-diplomatie-eric-robson-andriamihajamananirina-nous-represente-aux-etats-unis">De la promotion des investissements &agrave; la diplomatie: Eric Robson Andriamihajamananirina nous repr&eacute;sente aux Etats-Unis!</a> (Madagascar Foreign Ministry)</p>
2018-06-15T11:55:06-07:00860490http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/argentinas-ambassador-to-the-united-states-who-is-fernando-oris-de-roa-180614?news=860490Top StoriesArgentina’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Fernando Oris de Roa?<p>
Fernando Julio Oris de Roa, a wealthy agribusinessman who developed an interest in public policy, presented his credentials as Argentina&rsquo;s ambassador to the United States to President Donald Trump on January 24, 2018. It&rsquo;s his first such posting.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Oris de Roa was born November 4, 1952. His great-grandfather, Lino Oris de Roa (1845-1920), emigrated to Argentina from Spain and became an Army officer to helped conquer to Araucanian people in the Patagonian region in the 1870s.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Fernando Oris de Roa began his career at Continental Cereals in 1970, and rose to become its president in 1987. He left the company in 1992 and the following year led a group of investors who purchased San Miguel, a failing lemon producer and processor. Oris de Roa turned the company into the largest lemon producer in the world, but his methods made enemies in the United States. In 2000, he made a deal with U.S. citrus grower Sunkist to export Argentine lemons to the United States and have them labeled and marketed by Sunkist. This did not sit well with lemon growers in California and Arizona who saw their market share and profits threatened.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 1999, Oris de Roa co-wrote the book <em>Emotional Solvency: Learning to Generate Well-Being</em> with Mar&iacute;a Carmen Gear and Ernesto C&eacute;sar Liendo. A few years later, he took time out from his career to earn a Master&rsquo;s in public policy from Harvard&rsquo;s Kennedy School of Government in 2003. Following that, Oris de Roa founded the poultry company Avex and set up a chicken growing and processing plant to concentrate on the export market. At its height, the Avex plant killed 75,000 chickens a day. He was also the president of the poultry company Los Valientes.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Oris de Roa served on the board of directors of Patagonia Gold before resigning in 2006. He became non-executive director of Orocobre Limited in June 2010, an Australian company that mines lithium and borax in Argentina.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Oris de Roa was made director of Expofrut, a pear and apple processor, in 2011. That year, a seasonal worker for Expofrut, Daniel Solano, disappeared after being arrested. Solano had protested labor fraud at Expofrut in which the company was accused of withholding half of workers&rsquo; salaries. President Maurici Macri&rsquo;s appointment of Oris de Roa&rsquo;s as ambassador in November 2017 was criticized because of his ties to the still-unsolved disappearance of Solano.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 2011, Oris de Roa founded Investors Toolbox, a venture capital and private equity firm. He created Bravo Charabon, another agricultural firm, in 2013. He was director of Advantage Lithium until January 2018.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Oris de Roa ventured out of the business world in 2016 to become under secretary of investments for the city of Buenos Aires, serving until the following year.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Oris de Roa married Mercedes de Campos in 1974. They have two daughters and a son and 10 grandchildren.</p>
<p align="right">
-Steve Straehley, David Wallechinsky</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.eeeuu.mrecic.gov.ar/es/embajador-0">Official Biography</a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.identidadcorrentina.com.ar/index.php/noticias/internacionales/12891-el-decisivo-rol-del-bisabuelo-de-fernando-oris-de-roa-nuevo-embajador-en-eeuu-en-la-derrota-mapuche-en-el-siglo-xix">El Decisivo Rol del Bisabuelo de Fernando Oris De Roa, Nuevo Embajador En EEUU, en la Derrota Mapuche en el Siglo XIX</a> (Identidad Correntina)</p>
2018-06-14T11:55:06-07:00860489http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/japans-ambassador-to-the-united-states-who-is-shinsuke-sugiyama-180613?news=860489Top StoriesJapan’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Shinsuke Sugiyama?<p>
Shinsuke J. Sugiyama, a long-time member of his country&rsquo;s Foreign Service, presented his credentials to President Donald Trump as Japan&rsquo;s ambassador to the United States on March 28, 2018. His appointment had been announced December 23, 2017.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Sugiyama was born May 14, 1953. He attended Waseda University and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs right before his 1977 graduation.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 1988, Sugiyama was involved in negotiating the Japan&ndash;US Agreement for Cooperation on Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
By 1992, Sugiyama was working in the Economic Affairs Bureau of the ministry. The following year, he was named private secretary to the vice minister of foreign affairs, Kunihiko Saito. Sugiyama was chosen to lead the United Nations Policy Division in 1995 and played a similar role in the Treaties Division in 1998. In 1997, while he was Saito&rsquo;s secretary, Sugiyama was mentioned in a <a href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09TOKYO504_a.html">slush fund embezzlement scandal</a>, however no action was ever taken against him.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Sugiyama moved to Seoul as political affairs minister in the embassy there in 2000. In 2004, he was named deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Sugiyama returned to Japan in 2005 as the deputy director general for the Middle East in the Middle East and African Affairs Bureau and served as acting director in 2006. In 2008, Sugiyama was named director general for global issues and in 2011 was made director general for the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and served as Japan&rsquo;s lead diplomat on North Korean nuclear issues.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 2013, Sugiyama was tapped to be deputy minister of foreign affairs and in 2016 was promoted to vice minister, the highest-ranked career diplomat. Sugiyama created a controversy while still deputy minister in February 2016, after Japan and South Korea had agreed on compensation and other matters surrounding the Japanese Army&rsquo;s use of &ldquo;comfort women,&rdquo; mostly Korean women forced into prostitution for the benefit of soldiers, during World War II. &ldquo;In the early 1990s, when the comfort women issue became a political and diplomatic problem between Japan and the Republic of Korea, the Japanese government conducted a thorough investigation, but there were no documents confirming that the Japanese government or army forced comfort women into sexual servitude,&rdquo; Sugiyama told a UN panel.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
But that spring, Sugiyama scored something of a triumph in another matter involving World War II. He coordinated the visit of John Kerry to Hiroshima, the first time a U.S. Secretary of State had visited the site of the first use of the atomic bomb.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Sugiyama and his wife, Yoko, have two children: a son, Shunsuke, a businessman in Japan; and daughter <a href="http://www.reinasugiyama.com/">Reina</a>, a fashion designer in New York.</p>
<p align="right">
-Steve Straehley</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/18/south-korea-warns-japan-comfort-women-accord-claims-of-no-proof">South Korea Warns Japan Over &ldquo;Comfort Women&rdquo; Accord After Claims of No Proof</a> (by Justin McCurry, The Guardian)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/02/16/national/politics-diplomacy/japans-next-ambassador-u-s-firm-stance-north-korea/">Japan&rsquo;s Next Ambassador to U.S. Firm on Stance Against North Korea</a> (Japan Times)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/06/02/national/foreign-ministrys-deputy-chief-sugiyama-become-new-top-bureaucrat/#.WxcKHu4vx1s">Foreign Ministry&rsquo;s Deputy Chief Sugiyama to Become New Top Bureaucrat</a> (Japan Times)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://search.wikileaks.org/?query=shinsuke+sugiyama&amp;exact_phrase=&amp;any_of=&amp;exclude_words=&amp;document_date_start=&amp;document_date_end=&amp;released_date_start=&amp;released_date_end=&amp;publication_type%5B%5D=3&amp;new_search=False&amp;order_by=oldest_document_date#results">State Department Cables 2005-2010</a> (WikiLeaks)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/english/html/Ambassador/ambassador_sugiyama.html">Official Biography</a></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/list-foreign-ambassadors-participated-credentialing-ceremony-4/">Official Announcement</a></p>
2018-06-13T11:55:06-07:00860488http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/kiribatis-ambassador-to-the-united-states-who-is-teburoro-tito-180612?news=860488Top StoriesKiribati’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Teburoro Tito?<p>
Teburoro Tito, who previously won three terms as president of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati (population 118,000), presented his credentials to President Donald Trump as his country&rsquo;s ambassador to the United States on January 24, 2018. Since September 2017, Tito has also been serving as Kiribati&rsquo;s representative to the United Nations.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Tito was born August 25 in 1952 or 1953 (sources differ) in Tanaeang Village on Tabiteuea North Island in what was then the Gilbert Islands. He attended St. Joseph&rsquo;s College in Abaiang, Kiribati and earned a B.S. from the University of the South Pacific in 1977, along with a graduate certificate in education in 1979.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Tito was an educator before becoming a politician, and he was known as an organizer of soccer tournaments. He was chair of the Kiribati Football Association from 1980 to 1994. Starting as a scholarship officer, he served as senior education officer from 1983 to 1987. As the secretary of the Christian Democratic Party, he was elected to the Kiribati parliament in March 1987 and first ran for president two months later. He lost a spirited race 10,700 to 8,100 to the incumbent, Ieremia Tabai. He served as opposition leader until 1990 and deputy leader until 1994. Tito was finally elected president in September 1994. In Kiribati, three or four presidential nominees are chosen by the parliament and voted on by the public.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 1995, Tito adjusted the International Date Line so that the entire nation would be on one side of it, and as a bonus, would make Kiribati the first country to be able to celebrate the new year in 2000. In 1995, Tito proposed a plan to sell Kiribati special non-citizen passports to foreigners for $15,000 each, upping the price to $20,000 the following year in exchange for the right to develop remote Kanton Island (population 100).</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Tito was reelected twice, in 1998 and 2002, for the maximum three allowable terms. However, he lost a vote of confidence in the parliament three months after his 2002 election and was turned out of office. Two controversies contributed to the loss. The first was the existence of a Chinese tracking station in Kiribati. The Chinese said the tracking station was designed to monitor their satellites, but some believe it was used to track U.S. missiles at the nearby Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands. The second controversy was the lease of an ATR-72 turboprop airliner that cost the government $8 million in six months.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Tito continued to serve in parliament until he was named ambassador. Recently, Tito has endorsed a plan whereby members of a Russian monarchist party would buy three Kiribati islands as a site to revive the Romanov empire. Tito said it would be good for tourism.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 1997, Tito described the threat to small island nations caused by climate change-related rising tides <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/02/world/in-pacific-growing-fear-of-paradise-engulfed.html">this way</a>: &ldquo;It&#39;s like little ants making a home on a leaf floating on a pond. And the elephants go to drink and roughhouse in the water. The problem isn&#39;t the ants&rsquo; behavior. It&rsquo;s a problem of how to convince the elephants to be more gentle.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Tito&rsquo;s wife, Keina, works to maintain indigenous traditions in the islands. They have one child and one grandchild.</p>
<p align="right">
-Steve Straehley, David Wallechinsky</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/bio5018.doc.htm">UN Biography</a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0hdl--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-00&amp;cl=CL2.21.2&amp;d=HASH0113784e007edb122d3513c0.4.1.1&amp;gt=1">An Interview with the President of Kiribati, Teburoro Tito</a> (by Robert Rowe, The Courier)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/323199/russian-plan-in-kiribati-finds-support-'in-principle'">Russian Plan in Kiribati Finds Support &ldquo;in Principle&rdquo;</a> (Radio New Zealand)</p>
2018-06-12T11:55:06-07:00860487http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/ecuadors-ambassador-to-the-united-states-who-is-francisco-carri%C3%B3n-mena-180611?news=860487Top StoriesEcuador’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Francisco Carrión Mena?<p>
Francisco Carri&oacute;n Mena, who had left his country&rsquo;s Foreign Service in 2011, was appointed in December 2017 to be Ecuador&rsquo;s ambassador to the United States.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Carri&oacute;n was born April 8, 1953, in Quito, Ecuador. He earned a bachelor&rsquo;s degree in public and social sciences from Central University of Ecuador in 1974 and a Ph.D. in international sciences in 1978 from the same institution.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Carri&oacute;n joined Ecuador&rsquo;s Foreign Service in 1974. Beginning in 1982, he was first secretary at the embassy in Paris. He returned to Ecuador in 1988 as adviser and diplomatic coordinator for then-President Rodrigo Borja Cevallos. Carri&oacute;n was sent to London in 1991 and served as charg&eacute; d&rsquo;affaires there.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 1996, Carri&oacute;n was home again, this time serving as under secretary of national sovereignty. He also served on the team negotiating peace with neighboring Peru. He was named vice-minister of foreign affairs in 1998. Two years later, Carri&oacute;n was named ambassador to Spain.</p>
<p>
He returned to Quito in 2005 as minister of foreign affairs.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Shortly after President Rafael Correa took over in 2007, Carri&oacute;n was named Correa&rsquo;s representative to the Yasuni-ITT initiative. Yasuni-ITT was a proposal that Ecuador would suspend oil extraction from the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini part of the Yasuni national park if the international community would pay Ecuador $3.6 billion to make up for the lost revenue. The plan was abandoned in 2013.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Carri&oacute;n was named Ecuador&rsquo;s permanent representative to the United Nations in November 2009, serving until 2011, when he left the diplomatic corps because of disagreements with Correa&rsquo;s policies. He had been chairman of the UN&rsquo;s Decolonization Committee.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Since then, Carri&oacute;n has taught and written a newspaper column for <em>Diario El Comercio</em>. During this period, he did serve as president of the International Committee of the United Nations for the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families. Carri&oacute;n was appointed U.S. ambassador by Len&iacute;n Moreno, who took over the presidency from Correa in May 2017.</p>
<p>
Carri&oacute;n is married and has two children.</p>
<p align="right">
-Steve Straehley</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.ecuadortimes.net/francisco-carrion-mena-im-going-with-the-mission-to-open-doors-with-the-united-states/">Francisco Carri&oacute;n Mena: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m Going With the Mission to Open Doors With the United States&rdquo;</a> (Ecuador Times)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CMW/Elections2011/CarrionMena.pdf">Curriculum Vitae</a> (pdf)</p>
2018-06-11T11:55:06-07:00860486http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/the-gambias-ambassador-to-the-united-states-who-is-dawda-fadera-180610?news=860486Top StoriesThe Gambia’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Dawda Fadera?<p>
Dawda Docka Fadera, who managed his country&rsquo;s civil service for much of his career, presented his credentials as The Gambia&rsquo;s ambassador to the United States to President Donald Trump on January 24, 2018. It&rsquo;s his first such posting.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Fadera was born in Kiang Nema, in the country&rsquo;s Lower River (now Mansa Konko) Division, in the center of The Gambia.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Fadera worked in The Gambia&rsquo;s Personnel Management Office beginning in 1995, rising to become the office&rsquo;s permanent secretary in August 2010. He was dismissed from the post by then-Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh in 2011, but brought back a year later when Jammeh found the office wasn&rsquo;t functioning as well as it had been under Fadera&rsquo;s leadership. He was also made vice chairman of the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital and chairperson of the board of directors for the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Fadera testified in August-September 2014 against former Secretary General Njogou Bah. The following year, Fadera himself was caught up in a corruption investigation involving oil contracts, but the prosecution was dropped.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 2017, newly-elected President Adama Barrow appointed Fadera secretary general and head of The Gambia&rsquo;s civil service, posts he held until January 2018.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Fadera arrived in Washington with his wife and four children.</p>
<p align="right">
-Steve Straehley</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawda_Fadera">Dawda Fadera</a> (Wikipedia)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.sbngambia.com/reforms-end-political-interference-gambias-civil-service/">Reforms to End &ldquo;Political Interference&rdquo; in Gambia&rsquo;s Civil Service</a> (by Kebba Jeffang, SBN)</p>
2018-06-10T13:25:06-07:00860485http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/ambassador-to-kyrgyzstan-who-is-donald-lu-180608?news=860485Top StoriesAmbassador to Kyrgyzstan: Who Is Donald Lu?<p>
Donald Lu, a career Foreign Service Officer who has been ambassador to Albania since December 2014 and who has spent the balance of his career working with other formerly communist nations, was nominated by President Donald Trump on May 25, 2018, to become the U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan. If confirmed by the Senate, he would succeed <a href="http://www.allgov.com/officials/gwaltney-sheila?officialid=30040">Sheila Gwaltney</a>, who has served in Bishkek since August 2015 and is set for reassignment in July 2018. &nbsp;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
During his time in Albania, Lu earned both <a href="http://foreignpolicynews.org/2016/08/16/ambassador-donald-lu-master-public-diplomacy/">praise</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/9/donald-lu-george-soros-cohort-plays-albania-politi/">criticism</a> for his attempts to support ongoing efforts by the U.S. and others to root out the systemic corruption in the Albanian political and judicial system. Despite the long-standing nature of the corruption and the efforts against it, some right-wing commentators seized on the conservative politics of many of the individuals recently targeted to smear Lu with charges of being an operative of liberal billionaire George Soros or a part of a so-called &ldquo;deep state&rdquo; conspiracy against President Trump. However, Trump&rsquo;s decision to nominate Lu for the Kyrgyzstan job suggests that Trump is not troubled by these allegations.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Born March 24, 1966, to David Lu and Allena (Kaplan) Lu in Huntington Beach, California, Donald Lu earned Bachelor&rsquo;s and Master&rsquo;s degrees in International Relations at Princeton University in 1988 and 1991, respectively. Lu served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone from 1988 to 1990, where he helped to restore hand-dug water wells and taught health education and latrine construction.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Joining the Foreign Service in 1990, Lu served early career foreign postings as a political officer at the consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan; as a consular officer at the embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia; and as a special assistant to Ambassador Frank Wisner and then political officer at the embassy in New Delhi, India.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Lu served as special assistant to the ambassador for the &ldquo;Newly Independent States,&rdquo; (NIS) from 2000 to 2001, and then as deputy director for the Office of Central Asian and South Caucasus Affairs from 2001 to 2003. The NIS were former Soviet republics that achieved independence after the fall of the USSR, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
From 2003 to 2006, Lu was deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Lu then served as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, including a stint as the charg&eacute; d&rsquo;affaires from July 2009 through July 2010, when the office of ambassador was vacant.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In September 2009, Lu dispatched a <a href="http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/09/09BAKU749.html">diplomatic cable</a> to Washington in which, quoting a prominent local politician, he compared Azerbaijani President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilham_Aliyev">Ilham Aliyev</a> to the two young mafia dons of <em>The Godfather</em> films: the impulsive Sonny Corleone and his calculating younger brother Michael. Lu wrote that Aliyev&rsquo;s foreign policy&mdash;which he characterized as based on &ldquo;restraint and a helpful bias toward integration with the West,&rdquo; represented his inner Michael, while his &ldquo;increasingly authoritarian&rdquo; domestic policies channeled Sonny. He even called Aliyev&rsquo;s father, Heydar, who was president for the decade prior to his son, &ldquo;the &lsquo;Vito Corleone&rsquo; of Azerbaijan.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Lu served in India again from July 2010 to July 2014 as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in New Delhi. In the latter half of 2014, however, he worked on the Ebola crisis in West Africa as deputy coordinator for ebola response, before becoming ambassador to Albania.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In October 2017, in a speech to the Magistrates School in Tirana, Lu described Albania as &ldquo;a center of organized crime activity which includes trafficking in drugs, weapons, and prostitution,&rdquo; with four major clans controlling 20 crime families.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Lu is married to Dr. Ariel Ahart, a public health specialist. They have two children, Kipling and Aliya. Lu speaks West African Krio, Urdu, Hindi, Russian, Georgian, and Azerbaijani.</p>
<p align="right">
-Matt Bewig</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://24.kg/english/85652_Donald_Lu_nominated_for_post_of_US_Ambassador_to_Kyrgyzstan/">Donald Lu Nominated for Post of U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan</a> (by Elena Khokhlova, 24g)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/ludonaldbio.html">Official Biography</a></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Lu.pdf">Statement of Donald Lu before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee</a> (pdf, 2013)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/fron-nahzi/albania-ambassador-lus-wa_b_8849026.html">Albania: Ambassador Lu&rsquo;s Watch List</a> (by Fron Nahzi, Huffington Post)</p>
2018-06-08T11:55:06-07:00860484http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/ambassador-to-sri-lanka-and-maldives-who-is-alaina-b-teplitz-180607?news=860484Top StoriesAmbassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives: Who Is Alaina B. Teplitz?<p>
Alaina B. Teplitz, a career Foreign Service officer who has served as ambassador to Nepal since 2015, was nominated May 24, 2018, to be ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
She is the daughter of Marsha Neece (Freeman) and Jack Teplitz, a lawyer and developer. Teplitz attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Fellow graduates of that high school include former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Chicago Mayor and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, novelist Scott Turow and actors Ralph Bellamy, Charlton Heston and Rock Hudson. After graduating in 1987, Teplitz went on to Georgetown University where she earned a B.S. in Foreign Service and joined the <a href="http://www.allgov.com/departments/department-of-state?detailsDepartmentID=575">State Department</a> in 1991.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Her first overseas assignment was as the first economic officer in the U.S. embassy in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Other early postings included Tirana, Albania; and Sydney, Australia.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Much of Teplitz&rsquo;s career has been in administration, including stints as special assistant to the assistant secretary for administration and as a program analyst in the Bureau of Administration. She was also a management counselor at the embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh and was deputy director of the Joint Administrative Services for three U.S. missions&mdash;the U.S. mission to NATO, the U.S. mission to the European Union, and the embassy in Brussels, Belgium.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In August 2007, Teplitz began passing on her expertise to others as she was made director of the Management Training Division of the Foreign Service Institute. She gained more experience with South Asia beginning in 2009 as deputy executive director of the joint executive office of the Near East and South and Central Asia Bureaus with responsibility for South and Central Asia, including Pakistan and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Like most other Foreign Service officers, she had a tour in Afghanistan, beginning in 2011 as minister counselor for management in the U.S. embassy in Kabul. While there, she was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-visas/visa-program-for-afghan-allies-comes-up-empty-idUSTRE7AL0G120111122">forced to defend</a> the failure of a program meant to provide visas for Afghans who worked for the U.S. government.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
She returned home in the fall of 2012 and was made director of the Office of Management Policy, Rightsizing and Innovation. Much of her work was with information technology systems, getting IT policies in international outposts to mesh with those prescribed by Washington, and other efforts at standardization to make the systems more efficient. Part of her mandate was also to look for cost-savings by contracting out some jobs and ensuring that missions were not overstaffed.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 2015, Teplitz was nominated to be ambassador to Nepal, and she was confirmed to the post on August 7 of that year. That November, Teplitz had to preside over a memorial for six U.S. Marines killed in an aircraft accident in Nepal while supplying aid in the wake of earthquakes earlier that year.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Married to Robert D. Saul, Teplitz has two sons, Max and Miles. She speaks Albanian, Chinese-Mandarin, French and Mongolian.</p>
<p align="right">
-Steve Straehley</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/dr-kings-legacy-power-nonviolence/">Dr. King&rsquo;s Legacy: Power of Nonviolence</a> (by Alaina B. Teplitz, Himalayan Times)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/062315_Teplitz_Testimony.pdf">Testimony before Senate Foreign Relations Committee</a> (pdf)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/199544.htm">Official Biography</a></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wrfwdnrauc">16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence</a> (by Alaina Teplitz, U.S. Embassy-Kabul, YouTube)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-personnel-key-administration-posts-45/">Official Announcement</a></p>
2018-06-07T11:55:06-07:00860483http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/us-ambassador-to-malta-who-is-christine-toretti-180606?news=860483Top StoriesU.S. Ambassador to Malta: Who Is Christine Toretti?<p>
Christine Louise Jack Toretti, a major Republican donor and a member of Donald Trump&rsquo;s transition team, was nominated May 18, 2018, to be ambassador to Malta.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Toretti was born February 24, 1957, in Pittsburgh to Samuel and Nell Jack. Toretti&rsquo;s father ran the oil and gas drilling company in Western Pennsylvania founded by his father. Toretti earned a B.S. in commerce at the University of Virginia in 1981 and returned to Indiana, Pennsylvania, to work at S.W. Jack Drilling, becoming chief financial officer in 1983.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 1990, Toretti&rsquo;s father killed himself, and Toretti took over his company. She served as chairman and CEO of the organization, the largest privately held land drilling company in the United States, until 2010 when she liquidated the 92-year-old company. She then became chair and CEO of consulting firm Palladio.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 1984, at age 27, Toretti became a director of S&amp;T Bank, moving up to vice-chairman in 2013 and chairman on May 21, 2018. Since October 2015, she has also been director of natural gas drilling company EQT.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Toretti has long been active in Republican politics, serving as a GOP national committeewoman from Pennsylvania since 1997. In 2006, she was the chair of Republican Lynn Swann&rsquo;s unsuccessful campaign for governor of Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
She has also worked to bring women into the male-dominated Republican Party, but it has been an uphill battle. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like pushing a rope versus pulling it,&rdquo; she told Michelle Cottle of <em>The Atlantic</em>. She founded the <a href="http://www.anstineseries.org/">Anne B. Anstine Excellence in Public Service Series</a>, an annual leadership program to encourage Republican women in Pennsylvania to enter politics.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
She has donated more than $1.2 million to Pennsylvania Republican candidates alone. In 2016, she also contributed to Marco Rubio&rsquo;s presidential campaign. In September 2016, Toretti became chairwoman of Pennsylvania&rsquo;s Women for Trump Statewide Leadership Team. Toretti worked on small business issues for the Trump transition team.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Toretti is a former director of the Pittsburgh branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Toretti had three sons&mdash;Joe, Max and Matthew&mdash;from her 1981-1998 marriage to Michael Toretti. Christine Toretti was serving on the board of the NCAA Foundation when she met then-University of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson at a 2002 dinner. The two married the following year, but divorced rather contentiously in 2008. At one point, Olson&rsquo;s doctor, Steven Knope, obtained a restraining order against Toretti, claiming she had left in his office a bullet-riddled target practice sheet.</p>
<p align="right">
-Steve Straehley, David Wallechinsky</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.indianagazette.com/news/toretti-in-line-to-be-ambassador/article_59765888-6588-53ca-9ea3-318665e7da4e.html">Toretti In Line to Be Ambassador</a> (by Ron Musselman, Indiana Gazette)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/03/the-elephant-trainer/357570/">The Elephant Trainer</a> (by Michelle Cottle, The Atlantic)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/08/christine_torettis_fundraising.html">Christine Toretti&#39;s Fundraising Talent Makes Her the State&#39;s Most Prominent Woman in the Republican Party</a> (by Robert J. Vickers, Pennlive.com)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://tucson.com/lifestyles/on-point-with-christine/article_82c3ac4f-6e78-5980-81f2-de35061bab37.html">On Point with Christine</a> (by Rhonda Bodfield Bloom, Arizona Daily Star)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-personnel-key-administration-posts-44/">Official Announcement</a></p>
2018-06-06T11:55:06-07:00860482http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/us-ambassador-to-south-korea-who-is-harry-b-harris-jr-180605?news=860482Top StoriesU.S. Ambassador to South Korea: Who Is Harry B. Harris Jr.?<p>
On February 9, 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Admiral Harry Binkley Harris Jr., the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command and the first Asian-American to reach the rank of admiral in the U.S. Navy, to be ambassador to Australia. But before Harris could even sniff a kangaroo, Trump switched gears on May 18, 2018, and instead nominated him to be ambassador to South Korea.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Harris&rsquo; father, a World War II veteran, was a machinist&rsquo;s mate chief petty officer in the Navy who married a Japanese woman when he was stationed in Japan after the war. Harry Jr. was born August 4, 1956, in Yokosuka, Japan. His father retired from the Navy in 1958 and the family moved to a farm in Tennessee, and then to Pensacola, Florida. Harris graduated from Booker T. Johnson High School in 1974, having participated in Naval Junior ROTC.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Harris went on to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating with a B.S. in engineering in 1978. He subsequently earned a master&rsquo;s in public administration from John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in the early 1990s and an M.A. in national security studies from Georgetown in 2000.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Harris went into naval aviation and, after flight school back in Pensacola, he was assigned as a tactical coordinator for P-3 Orion anti-submarine patrol planes, coordinating the personnel and the equipment in the back of the plane. From 1985 to 1987, Harris served as a tactical action officer aboard the carrier USS Saratoga, including participation in the response to the October 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and the April 1986 bombing of Libya.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
He continued to advance up the chain of command in naval aviation, with stops in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations from 1992 to 1993, commander of Whidbey Island Naval Base, and as special assistant to the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1998 to 2000. He served as assistant chief of staff for operations, plans and political-military affairs, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Manama, Bahrain. Harris earned his first star in 2005 when he was again serving in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations as director of Information/Current Operations.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
On March 31, 2006, Harris took over as commander of Joint Task Force Guant&aacute;namo. Under his watch, three prisoners held at the base, Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi, Salah Ali Abdullah Ahmed al-Salami and Yasser Talal Al Zahrani, died while in custody. Harris quickly declared the deaths to be suicides, saying: &ldquo;I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.&rdquo; However, an investigation by <em>Harper&rsquo;s</em> magazine cast considerable doubt on that verdict, pointing out the near simultaneous times of death while held separately; the improbability of the prisoners&rsquo; ability to kill themselves in the manner described (stuff rags down their throats, and then climb up on a counter and hang themselves); and bruises and other injuries suffered by the prisoners. The article suggested that the three were killed during a torture/interrogation session held in a secret part of the base.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
As reported earlier by <a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/did-guantanamo-guards-murder-3-prisoners-150118?news=855404">AllGov</a>, In order to accept Harris&rsquo; explanation of the death of the three prisoners, &ldquo;it is necessary to believe that each of them:</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
1)&nbsp; braided a noose by tearing up their sheets or clothing</p>
<p>
2)&nbsp; hung the noose from the metal mesh of the cell wall or ceiling</p>
<p>
3)&nbsp; made a mannequin of himself to trick the guards into thinking he was asleep in his bed</p>
<p>
4)&nbsp; hung a sheet to block the view into his cell</p>
<p>
5)&nbsp; tied his feet together</p>
<p>
6)&nbsp; shoved rags into his mouth and down his throat</p>
<p>
7)&nbsp; tied his own hands together</p>
<p>
8)&nbsp; climbed up onto the sink, put the noose around his neck and jumped off, causing death by strangulation</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Harris left Guant&aacute;namo in 2007 to become director of operations for the U.S. Southern Command. The following year, he was in Washington as deputy chief of Naval operations and in 2009 Harris took command of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, based in Naples, Italy.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
He returned to Washington in 2011 as assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He gained what would turn out to be valuable diplomatic experience as the chairman&rsquo;s representative to the secretary of state and U.S. roadmap monitor for the Mideast peace process. Harris traveled with secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry during that period.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 2013, Harris was named commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and the following year was nominated to lead the U.S. Pacific Command. He took over the post in 2015 and served until May 31, 2018. At that time, Harris was the longest-serving active-duty Naval Academy graduate and the longest-serving active duty naval aviator.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
According to Jacqueline Williams of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/world/australia/harry-harris-us-ambassador.html"><em>The New York Times</em></a>, &ldquo;Last year, in two separate events, American warships under Admiral Harris&#39;s command were damaged and several sailors were killed in collisions. He also accepted full responsibility in April for a bewildering chain of events that mistakenly left the impression that the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was rushing to confront an increasingly belligerent North Korea, when it was not.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Harris shares many of Trump&rsquo;s hardline views about North Korea. In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 15, 2018, Harris said: &ldquo;I believe if we do anything along the kinetic region of the spectrum of conflict, we have to be ready to do the whole thing [meaning full-fledged military assault against North Korea]. And we&rsquo;re ready to do the whole thing if ordered by the president.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Two days later, Harris said in a speech: &ldquo;The dangerous behavior by North Korea is not just a threat to the Korean Peninsula, it&rsquo;s a threat to Japan, it&rsquo;s a threat to China, it&rsquo;s a threat to Russia&mdash;let me say that again&hellip; it&rsquo;s a threat to Russia&mdash;it&rsquo;s a threat to the United States, it&rsquo;s a threat to the entire world.&rdquo; Harris then called for stronger sanctions against North Korea.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Meanwhile, Australia, a close ally and intelligence partner of the United States, has been without a U.S. ambassador since 2016.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Harris is married to Brunhilde &ldquo;Bruni&rdquo; Bradley, whom he met while both were serving in the Navy in Japan. Bradley retired from the Navy after 25 years as a commander and now serves as a member of the board of directors for the <a href="http://www.militarychild.org/">Military Child Education Coalition</a>.</p>
<p align="right">
-Steve Straehley</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.pacom.mil/Leadership/Biographies/Article-View/Article/589822/commander-us-pacific-command/">Commander, U.S. Pacific Command</a> (U.S. Navy)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=99970">From Four Bars to Four Stars: First NJROTC Cadet to Reach Full Admiral Speaks to Navy&rsquo;s Newest Sailors</a> (by Michael F. Miller, U.S. Navy)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/did-guantanamo-guards-murder-3-prisoners-150118?news=855404">Did Guant&aacute;namo Guards Murder 3 Prisoners?</a> (by Steve Straehley, AllGov)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jul/12/asian-american-admiral-pacific-fleet/">In Pacific, 1st Asian-American Fleet Leader</a> (by Jeanette Steele, San Diego Union-Tribune)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://harpers.org/archive/2010/03/the-guantanamo-suicides/">The Guant&aacute;namo &ldquo;Suicides&rdquo;</a> (by Scott Horton, Harper&rsquo;s)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-05-17/news/0605170139_1_enemy-combatants-detainees-guantanamo">Inside Guantanamo Bay</a> (by Harry B. Harris Jr, Chicago Tribune)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://thediplomat.com/2017/05/us-admiral-north-korea-threat-to-the-entire-world/">U.S. Admiral: North Korea &ldquo;Threat to the Entire World&rdquo;</a> (by Franz-Stefan Gady, The Diplomat)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-becomes-more-dovish-toward-north-korea-but-surrounds-himself-with-hawks/2018/05/02/1decc630-4d86-11e8-84a0-458a1aa9ac0a_story.html?utm_term=.e80e7fe88cff">Trump Becomes More Dovish Toward North Korea, but Surrounds Himself With Hawks</a> (by David Nakamura and John Hudson, Washington Post)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-personnel-key-administration-posts-44/">Official Announcement</a></p>
2018-06-05T11:55:06-07:00860480http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/director-of-the-pension-benefit-guaranty-corporation-who-is-gordon-hartogensis-180604?news=860480Top StoriesDirector of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation: Who Is Gordon Hartogensis?<p>
On May 14, 2018, President Donald Trump announced that the next director of the <a href="http://www.allgov.com/departments/department-of-labor/pension-benefit-guaranty-corporation?agencyid=7170">Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.</a> (PBGC) will be a wealthy private investor who has no experience in government or pension fund management. Gordon Hartogensis, however, is well-connected, in a nepotistic way. He is married to Grace Chao, a sister of <a href="http://www.allgov.com/departments/department-of-transportation?detailsDepartmentID=578">Transportation</a> Secretary <a href="http://www.allgov.com/officials/chao-elaine?officialid=30205">Elaine Chao</a>, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). This makes Hartogensis a brother-in-law of both Chao and McConnell. The nomination has raised serious ethical questions, given Hartogensis&rsquo; lack of relevant experience or background, and the apparent role of nepotism.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&ldquo;The White House&rsquo;s process for naming and vetting candidates is flawed,&rdquo; Scott Amey told <em>The Washington Post</em>. General Counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, Amey also charged that &ldquo;this seems to be another example of who you know rather than what you know.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The PBGC is a <a href="http://www.allgov.com/departments/department-of-labor?detailsDepartmentID=574">Labor Department</a> agency that collects insurance premiums from companies that have defined-benefit pension plans and pays benefits to workers when companies cannot. In other words, when companies leave workers in the lurch by failing to fully fund their pension plans, PBGC steps in to help the workers. With 966 employees, PBGC has an annual budget of $423 million (FY 2017), $184 billion in obligations, and $108 billion in assets. If confirmed by the Senate, Hartogensis would succeed <a href="http://www.allgov.com/officials/reeder-w-thomas?officialid=30372">W. Thomas Reeder Jr.</a>, an Obama appointee who started in October 2015 and is only halfway through his term of office. During <a href="https://www.pbgc.gov/sites/default/files/pbgc-testimony-ew-help-subcommittee-11-29-2017.pdf">testimony</a> before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions on November 29, 2017, Reeder characterized PBGC&rsquo;s multiemployer program as being &ldquo;headed toward insolvency.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Born June 17, 1970, to attorney Peter Hartogensis and Susan (Shaw) Hartogensis, Gordon Hartogensis grew up in the Montgomery County, Maryland, suburbs of Washington, DC. He graduated Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland, in 1988, and earned a BS in Computer Science at Stanford University in 1992. Years later, in 2016, he added an MS in Technology Management at Columbia University.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Hartogensis worked one year, July 1992 to July 1993, as a foreign exchange trader at Credit Suisse in New York.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In August 1993, barely a year after graduating, Hartogensis joined Petrolsoft Corporation in San Diego, which had been founded only 4 years before by two Stanford graduates. Hartogensis became the third partner in the firm, with the title of chief operating officer and principal. In June 2000, Aspen Technology, Inc. acquired Petrolsoft for an estimated <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/02/business/company-news-aspen-acquires-another-petroleum-software-company.html?pagewanted=1">$59.6 million</a> in stock, making Hartogensis a wealthy man. Hartogensis remained with Aspen for two years, managing the integration of Petrolsoft&rsquo;s products into Aspen&rsquo;s product line.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
After leaving Aspen in June 2002, Hartogensis co-founded Auric Technology LLC, a New York-based firm of which he was CEO from January 2004 to August 2011. Like Petrolsoft, Auric sold software to business clients, in Auric&rsquo;s case a customer relationship management (CRM) system targeted at manufacturing companies. Auric was sold to Telnorm of Mexico City in 2011, and Hartogensis stayed on a short time to help integrate CRM products into Telnorm&rsquo;s offerings.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Since September 2011, Hartogensis has been trustee of the Hartogensis Family Trust, which he manages from his home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. His LinkedIn profile lists no other job titles or activity. However, in April 2012, he joined Juggernaut Capital Partners for one year and, since April 2013, he has been listed as a managing member of Harben Capital.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
A Republican, Hartogensis has <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=gordon+hartogensis">donated</a> more than $85,000 to Republican candidates and organizations, including $11,600 to McConnell and $50,000 to the Republican Party of Kentucky.</p>
<p align="right">
-Matt Bewig</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/meet-the-trump-officials-making-government-a-family-business?ref=scroll">Make Nepotism Great Again: 20 Families Got Jobs in Trump Administration</a> (by Lachlan Markay, The Daily Beast)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonhartogensis/">LinkedIn Profile</a></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/05/15/trumps-pick-to-run-labors-pension-agency-mitch-mcconnells-brother-in-law/?utm_term=.7c0d4c1172d7">Trump&rsquo;s Pick to Run Labor&rsquo;s Pension Agency: Mitch McConnell&rsquo;s Brother-in-Law</a> (by Alex Horton, Washington Post)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/15/trump-nominates-mitch-mcconnell-in-law-gordon-hartogensis-for-job.html">Trump Nominates Brother-in-Law of Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and Transportation Secretary Chao to Run Pension Agency</a> (by Dan Mangan and Kevin Breuninger, CNBC)&nbsp;</p>
2018-06-04T11:55:06-07:00860481http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/assistant-secretary-of-education-for-career-technical-and-adult-education-who-is-scott-stump-180603?news=860481Top StoriesAssistant Secretary of Education for Career, Technical, and Adult Education: Who Is Scott Stump?<p>
On May 14, 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Scott Stump to be the assistant secretary of education for career, technical, and adult education. Stump has been chief operating officer of Vivayic, Inc., a &ldquo;learning solutions&rdquo; company based in Lincoln, Nebraska, since January 2015. The <a href="http://www.allgov.com/departments/department-of-education/office-of-vocational-and-adult-education?agencyid=7374">Office of Vocational and Adult Education</a> (OVAE) is responsible for adult, post-secondary, rural, and vocational education. If confirmed by the Senate, Stump would succeed <a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/appointments-and-resignations/acting-assistant-secretary-for-career-technical-and-adult-education-who-is-johan-uvin-170114?news=860033">Johan Uvin</a>, who served from May 2014 to January 2017.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Trump did not get his first pick for this position: Tim Kelly, a Michigan state legislator. Trump was forced to withdraw Kelly&rsquo;s nomination after several <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2017/11/09/kelly-education-nomination-yanked/107509136/">bigoted blog posts</a> written by Kelly became public knowledge. The posts included a proposal to ban all Muslims from air travel until they could &ldquo;clear their names,&rdquo; derogatory statements about Head Start parents, and criticism of federal efforts to recruit women into the sciences.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Born July 7, 1967, to Ned and Nancy Stump, Scott Alan Stump grew up in Stroh, a small town in northeastern Indiana. He graduated in 1985 from nearby Prairie Heights High School, where his father worked many years as an agriculture teacher and advisor to the school&rsquo;s Future Farmers of America (FFA) club.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
After high school, Stump earned a BA in Agricultural Education at Purdue University in 1990. In 2017, he added an MBA at Western Governors University, a private, online-only school. In 2017, a <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/auditreports/fy2017/a05m0009.pdf">DOE IG audit</a> found that WGU&rsquo;s curriculum and distance learning methods failed &ldquo;to offer [students] regular and substantive interaction with an instructor and, therefore, did not meet the regulatory definition of distance education.&rdquo; The audit concluded that WGO owes the federal government $712 million for Title IV funding it wrongly received. The Trump administration, which generally favors &ldquo;competency-based&rdquo; education, is expected to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/22/education-depts-inspector-general-calls-western-governors-repay-713-million-federal">bury the report</a>, which WGU contested.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Initially following in his father&rsquo;s footsteps, Stump was an agriculture teacher at Manchester High School in Manchester, Indiana, from August 1990 to June 1992, where he also worked with the local FFA.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Stump left teaching after 12 years to join the National FFA Organization in Indianapolis, where he worked for 9 years. From June 1992 to January 1996, he was a student services specialist, coordinating the development of content and materials for a number of weekend leadership conferences he designed for FFA members throughout the U.S. From January 1996 to July 2001, he was national officer director and convention manager for the National FFA Organization. He developed, designed and organized national leadership conferences for 49,000 FFA members.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In August 2001, Stump relocated from Indiana to Colorado to work in the Colorado Community College System in Denver, remaining more than 13 years. From August 2001 to December 2007, he was state FFA advisor and program director for agricultural education, where he provided support and technical assistance to ag teachers and administrators at secondary and post-secondary schools.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
From January 2008 to December 2014, he was assistant provost for career and technical education, responsible for supporting the entire state system of secondary and postsecondary Career and Technical Education (CTE). During this period, he also served a nine month stint (June 13, 2011 to March 11, 2012) as interim president of Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 2014-2015, Stump was president of the National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium, now known as <a href="https://www.careertech.org/">Advance CTE</a>.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In January 2015, Stump left public service to become chief operating officer at Vivayic, whose co-founders had long considered Stump a mentor. Located in Lincoln, Nebraska, Vivayic provides education services to corporations and other organizations.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Scott Stump lives near Stoneham, Colorado, with his wife Denise A. (Tappy) Stump, with whom he has two sons and a daughter.</p>
<p align="right">
-Matt Bewig</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2018/05/trump_picks_colorado_career_and_technical_official_for_education_department_post.html">Trump Taps Former Community College Official for Career and Technical Education Post</a> (by Alyson Klein, Education Week)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-stump-b1195529/">LinkedIn Profile</a></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.wlki.com/news.php?sb_news_id=49806">Local &ldquo;Boy&rdquo; Makes Good on FFA Roots to Land Job in Trump Administration</a> (by Sheila McCrea, WLKI)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2017/11/09/kelly-education-nomination-yanked/107509136/">Michigan Rep Loses Federal Dducation Nomination</a> (by Jonathan Oosting, Detroit News)</p>
2018-06-03T13:25:06-07:00860479http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/secretary-of-veterans-affairs-who-is-robert-wilkie-180601?news=860479Top StoriesSecretary of Veterans Affairs: Who Is Robert Wilkie?<p>
Robert Leon Wilkie Jr., who has served since 2017 as the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, was nominated May 18, 2018, to be the secretary of <a href="http://www.allgov.com/departments/department-of-veteran-affairs?detailsDepartmentID=567">Veterans Affairs</a>. Wilkie has run the department on an acting basis since March 2018, when <a href="http://www.allgov.com/officials/shulkin-david-j?officialid=30224">David Shulkin</a> was fired.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Wilkie was born August 2, 1962, in Frankfurt, West Germany, where his father, <a href="http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theneworleansadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=robert-leon-wilkie&amp;pid=185338145&amp;fhid=5630">Robert Leon Wilkie Sr.</a>, was serving with the U.S. Army, eventually rising to artillery commander. His mother is the former Joy Somerville. Wilkie and his family lived for a while in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, before settling in Fayetteville, North Carolina, home of Fort Bragg. Wilkie graduated from Reid Ross High School in Fayetteville in 1980. He went to college at Tulane University, and then transferred to Wake Forest, where he earned a bachelor&rsquo;s degree in 1985. Wilkie then earned a J.D. at Loyola University of New Orleans in 1988.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
After graduation, Wilkie went to work in the office of then-Senator Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina). Years later, at a 2006 hearing when Wilkie was nominated to be assistant defense secretary for legislative affairs, Wilkie cited Helms as &ldquo;one of the great gentlemen of this body.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
While Wilkie was working for Helms, Helms was one of only four senators who voted against the 1990 Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act. Helms also proposed a bill that would have blocked aid to communities that refused to give contracts to companies that conducted business with the racist regime in South Africa.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Helms was known for such quotes as &ldquo;The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that&rsquo;s thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men&rsquo;s rights;&rdquo; and &ldquo;The government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
While Wilkie was working for Helms, he also continued his education, earning a Master of Laws in international and comparative law from Georgetown in 1992 and subsequently a Master&rsquo;s in strategic strategy from the Army War College in 2002. Wilkie went on to work in the office of Rep. David Funderburk (R-North Carolina), who served one term in Congress beginning in 1995. In 1996, Wilkie mounted an ultimately unsuccessful campaign to win the Republican nomination for the Seventh Congressional District in North Carolina. He also served as executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party from 1996 to 1997.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 1997, Wilkie moved over to the office of then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi). Wilkie first served as counsel on appropriations and Senate rules and procedure, and from 2000 as counsel and adviser on international security affairs.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Wilkie moved to the George W. Bush White House in 2003 as special assistant to National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice before being nominated for the <a href="http://www.allgov.com/departments/department-of-defense?detailsDepartmentID=569">Defense Department</a> post, where he served under Robert Gates and Donald Rumsfeld through the end of the Bush administration.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 2010, Wilkie was named vice president and business development director for large Department of Defense program integration opportunities at design and construction consulting firm CH2M Hill. He returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 as an adviser to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina). Wilkie worked on the Donald Trump transition team before being nominated in 2017 to be under secretary at Defense.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Wilkie has also served as an intelligence officer in the Naval Reserve and the Air Force Reserve.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Considering that Wilkie has a deep association with Republican senators, he will probably have an easy time winning nomination. When it was pointed out by veterans&rsquo; group <a href="http://www.votevets.org/">VoteVets</a> that he was not supposed to simultaneously be acting secretary while being nominated to fill the post permanently, Wilkie resigned his position as acting secretary on May 30 and returned to his position as undersecretary of defense.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Wilkie&rsquo;s great-grandmother, Nellie Nugent Somerville, was the first woman to be elected to the Mississippi legislature. Wilkie and his wife, Julie, have two children: Adam and Megan.</p>
<p align="right">
-Steve Straehley</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>To Learn More:</em></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.defense.gov/About/Biographies/Biography-View/Article/1394799/robert-wilkie/">Official Biography</a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article211420279.html">Trump Picks North Carolina&rsquo;s Robert Wilkie to Lead the VA</a> (by Brian Murphy, McClatchy Newspapers)</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.congress.gov/109/chrg/shrg36311/CHRG-109shrg36311.htm">Senate Armed Forces Committee Hearings</a></p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-personnel-key-administration-post-5/">Official Announcement</a></p>
2018-06-01T11:55:06-07:00